13 July 2018

Rayland Baxter/ ‘Wide Awake’/ ATO

In 2016, the hard-touring Baxter realized a longtime dream – he moved into an abandoned rubber-band factory in Kentucky, covered the windows, brought in a guitar and piano, and spent three straight months writing. The result is a howlin’ gamut of songs covering student debt (lead single “Casanova”), American values (“Strange American Dream”), a national fixation with guns (“79 Shiny Revolvers”) and other stories showing the best and worst of humanity.